The quickest way to turn someone against you and your line of thought is, and always will be, trying to tell people what to think, or berating anyone for their own personal life choices.

The Nationalist Party and the Church found this out, to their great expense, in the debate leading up to the divorce referendum, and both are still trying to pick up the pieces.

Let us be clear, this leading article is not a debate about whether God exists or does not. What this article is about though, is the freedom of choice in spirit that each one of us has, the right to choose, the right to believe or not believe in whatever faith we chose, or chose not to follow. It is about freedom. As we have seen in events unfolding around us, anyone oppressed will eventually rise up against tyranny. Berating anyone, whoever they are, for what they chose to believe or not believe in, is not becoming of a modern day democracy.

And this is why we cannot understand the actions directed against Lou Bondi. It all started when Mr Bondi appeared on a chat show where he was asked, point blank, whether he believed in God. He said that he did not, that over the years his faith had eroded and he came to believe that there is no God.

Yet, days later, a political party which has branded itself as being progressive and liberal has attacked Lou Bondi through its Sunday newspaper Kulħadd and through its deputy leader for party affairs Toni Abela, on the radio. This, we find to be unacceptable, given the party’s new approach and slogan of being ‘open to everyone’. How can a political party say that it is all in favour of being liberal and progressive, only to then go on and attack a person for his choice of personal beliefs?

We will, however, say that Dr Abela is well within his rights to seek the throwing out of Mr Bondi’s court testimony for taking an oath on the cross before a court appearance, but that is a legal technicality. What we cannot condone is someone going on the radio and berating someone for being an atheist. That is his choice, and his alone. Toni Abela apparently tried to backtrack in yesterday’s issue of l-orizzont – the GWU’s independent daily newspaper – and said that he was always in favour of conscience and that Alla ħares anyone censured or discriminated against anyone for their personal beliefs.

This is clearly a case of backtracking, and it just doesn’t wash. Dr Abela has already come out in the open and shown us now just what he thinks and no amount of spin or manoeuvering will change anyone’s opinion.

Mr Bondi might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and that is fair enough, people can think what they like of others. Equally, the PL may criticise him all they like in the public arena on public matters. But what they have no right to do is publish front page newspaper stories about his being a non-believer. Deputy leaders ranting on the radio is equally unacceptable. Maybe Dr Abela and the PL’s mouthpiece would like to tell us: What do they think of Sigmund Freud, Ivan Pavlov, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, David Gilmour, Mick Jagger and Mark Zuckerberg? These people have surely contributed as much as Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, St Francis and many others. The point we are making is that people all have their good qualities, whether believers or not.

No one has the right to berate anyone in this way, simply for declaring their beliefs, whatever they may be. And one more question, where is the normally vocal Humanist Society? Voltaire has the perfect quote to accompany this piece: “I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it.”